ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a single thesis: Children use language to talk about language when they have purposeful opportunities to do so. I explore this phenomenon through narratives and examples of children's literacy events to show that:
Children talk about language differently, depending on the context in which the talk about language takes place.
What children say about language reveals their knowledge about language, their views and attitudes toward language, and their ability to learn language.
What children know and say about language, which is constructed as they participate as members of a literate society, reflects both personal and cultural responses to being literate.
